Agricultural tractors are used to tow ground working or harvesting implements through agricultural fields. Tractors closely follow crop rows or other lines of demarcation in a field in order to properly space plants during planting and to avoid crushing growing plants during harvesting.
It is important that the operator be able to see around the vehicle, including in front of the vehicle with little or no restriction. To follow crop rows closely, the operator's good vision in front of the vehicle is essential.
Modern tractors are increasing in size resulting in larger more vision-obstructing hoods. As engine horsepower increases and the load capacity of the vehicle increases, tractors have increased proportionately in size, resulting in higher operator compartments, longer and higher hoods, and increasingly obstructed operator vision directly in front of him, where he most needs to see.
Newer hood arrangements are needed that lower the profile of the hood permitting the operator to see objects close to the front of the tractor. To provide improved vision, the newly designed vehicles must keep existing low hood lines at the front of the hood as the rest of the vehicle increases in size.
Lowering is possible only if the internal components are reconfigured to make room for the lowered hood. The traditional configurations of engine, heat exchangers and chassis have to be modified to relocate or reposition under-hood components in such a way that the front of the hood can be lowered.
The most important components to be reconfigured are those that are right at the front of the vehicle, particularly the heat exchangers. The heat exchangers are located at the very front of the vehicle underneath the leading edge of the hood adjacent the front grille. Their size is generally proportional to the output of the engine, and thus as the engine increases in power, the heat exchangers increase in size. Since they are located right at the front of the engine and are oriented vertically, they are the primary structures responsible for blocking the operator's view down the hood.
What is needed, therefore, is a tractor cooling system using an improved heat exchanger configuration that will permit the forward end of the tractor's hood to be lowered and the operator's vision improved. It is an object of this invention to provide such an improved heat exchanger configuration and cooling system.